Photovoltaic cells are widely used for the generation of electricity from solar light. System designers often trade off various costs and benefits when determining the components of a solar power generation facility. Various design consideration include the amount of area available for the placement of photovoltaic cells, the expected weather conditions, variations in the expected amount of expected sunlight during a day and during various seasons, and the desired amount of power to be provided by the facility.
In addition, economic factors also play a role in design choices. For example, more power can generally be obtained by installing a larger facility with more photovoltaic modules—within the limits of available area. But larger facilities generally come at increased up-front cost. Thus, a system designer may need to keep in mind the cost of photovoltaic modules, inverters, and other components; the savings that may be obtained by not needing to purchase supplemental electricity when needed from a local utility provider; and the price at which excess generated electricity may be sold to a local utility provider. While some of these design choices can involve complex calculations based on estimates of future economic conditions, they all generally involve meeting some goals while reducing the present cost of deploying the solar facility. For a variety of situations, it is helpful to employ designs that make efficient use of the components in a facility.